Knowledge, Awareness and Perception of Facial Cosmetic and Oral Maxillofacial Surgery Among Dental and Medical Undergraduate Students: Multicenter Cross-Sectional Study (Preprint)

BACKGROUND Facial cosmetic and maxillofacial Surgery is primarily a surgical specialty of dentistry concerned with the management of diseases of the jaws, mouth, face and neck regions. Its the only branch of dentistry to be to be strongly linked with other medical branches. It is indeed common knowledge that many medical professionals and the general public have a very low awareness of OMFS. Surveys conducted among graduating medical students show that they have very limited exposure to OMFS without even understanding the career pathway. OBJECTIVE This multicentric study aimed to investigate and assess the awareness, knowledge, and perception of facial cosmetic and oral maxillofacial surgery among dental and medical undergraduate students in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. METHODS The data of this cross-sectional study were obtained from medical and dental undergraduate students of different universities in Saudi Arabia, between September and December, 2019. The questionnaire was formulated after a pilot study was done to assess validity, and clarity of questions. It consisted of 23 variable that were divided into 2 sections: (a) demographic information (b) questions related to facial cosmetic and maxillofacial surgery. ethical approval was granted by the Research Ethics Committee at King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Data were considered significant at P<.05. All analyses were performed using SPSS, version 24. RESULTS Total of 412 dentistry students and 452 medicine & surgery students included. About 36% dental students and 35% medical students have been previously exposed to rotation of surgical specialties. A significantly higher percentage of dental students (80.6%) have heard about Facial Cosmetic & Maxillofacial, p <.001. Among the specific Facial Cosmetic & Maxillofacial surgeries, ‘fractures of the jaw and face’ was known by most of the dental (77.7%) and medical (63.7%) students. The mean knowledge score was higher among the dentistry students compared to medicine & surgery students ( 8.88 ± 4.47 vs 8.78 ± 4.40). CONCLUSIONS Level of knowledge and awareness about facial cosmetic and maxillofacial surgery among medical and dental students was fair. This study ascertains the need for an effective educational program to increase the awareness, which will directly enhance its success and the optimal management being delivered to our patients.